Elections are like awards ceremonies: The majority you attend throughout your life are uninspiring – and, let’s be honest, dreary – affairs, but every once in a while an event features a sparkling statement or personal testimony that makes you truly glad you were there.
Ken Cuccinelli is the spark of life that has motivated me to drive to Richmond on Saturday to vote in the nomination election for Republican candidate for Virginia Attorney General. My wife, neighbor and I are getting in the Joe-mobile at an uncomfortably early hour and spending the day in Richmond because Ken is one of the few public officials in the nation about whom one can say, “We all would be better off if that guy was in a higher office.” Anybody who has spent more than a few minutes talking to Ken, following his achievements in the Virginia Senate or listening to him give a speech knows that he is the real deal, someone who believes in what he is working for and does not compromise principles to achieve it.
Most importantly, Ken Cuccinelli realizes that it is not all about him. The people who will go the extra yard to support him do so because they believe in the goals he is working for, and they see that he does not reinvent himself to suit the times. He is a stalwart conservative who has gotten himself reelected in a Democrat bastion of Fairfax County because he believes sincerely and acts on those beliefs year in and year out. Ken does not hold his finger up into the polling winds to determine his message. He is who he is.
We’re taking a day and a long drive to support him because we have our eyes on the same prize: a rational Virginia state government.
The three chief issues that motivate me to support Ken Cuccinelli are illegal immigration, Second Amendment rights, and property rights. Let’s take them in reverse order:
Following the infamous US Supreme Court decision in Kelo v City of New London, Ken Cuccinelli was one of the first legislators to act to protect property rights of Virginia citizens. His legislation was eventually signed into law in April, 2007.
This means the government can’t condemn your house because they would like to see a bigger house, or a PetSmart, on the property. If you would like to send Ken a thank you note, please click here.
The proposition that any candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia is better than Ken Cuccinelli on gun rights is laughable. He is a longstanding member of the Arlington-Fairfax chapter of the Izaak Walton League, he has repeatedly earned the endorsements of the NRA and countless other Second Amendment organizations, and he is the only public official so many of us have seen (and accompanied) at the NRA range in Vienna and the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly over the past several years.
I personally want an Attorney General who has gun rights as more than part of his “platform.” I want a guy who lives it just as I do. I want an AG who will do everything in his power to protect those rights. Prominent Second Amendment supporters in Fairfax County who get reelected are a special breed – those are the kind of people I want in higher office.
While I think neighborhood harmony is one of the highest goals we should all be seeking, I also think ignoring the basic rules is insane. Especially during a down economy, if we are not enforcing the laws on legal hiring and residential standards we are in effect punishing those who play by the rules: It would be saying “you who obey the rules are chumps because the government is going to allow others a different code.” The Republican Party has over the past three years turned away from its civic responsibility on the immigration issue.
Ken Cuccinelli, more than anyone else in the Virginia Senate, gets it. He sees that we can’t blithely push the responsibility to the feds. He is a founding member of State Legislators for Legal Immigration. He was one of the first and most prominent to say “My president is wrong.”
He was the last, best hope in the Virginia General Assembly when everything was on the line, and he voted 100 percent for immigration enforcement at the state and local levels. I was there beating the bushes for popular support in 2007, and I can report that Ken Cuccinelli was one of the few bright lights at any level of government that we could look to for leadership on this issue, working for the interests of the legal residents of Virginia.
If you want an overview of what Ken has achieved on the illegal immigration front, click here and here. There is nobody better in the state, who happens to hold elected office. Illegal immigration is facilitated by a three-pronged support system of government permissiveness, illegal hiring and illegal housing. Ken has worked to eliminate all three. If you want someone in the AG office to reduce this problem, Ken is your man. Plus, he knows how to win elections.
I hope all of you who are registered as delegates to the Virginia Republican Convention will drive down to Richmond Saturday morning and join me in voting for Ken Cuccinelli as our nominee for Virginia Attorney General.
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